Chen could boost Marlins
MIAMI — Wei-Yin Chen received the biggest contract the Miami Marlins have ever given a pitcher in 2016 with the expectation he would be a veteran anchor in the starting rotation for at least five years.
That hasn’t happened, mainly due to the lefthander’s troublesome elbow.
Coming off his latest extended stay on the disabled list, when Chen made his first start of 2018 on Saturday it was only the 28th since signing the $80 million contract, now in its third season.
The Marlins are hopeful the results will be different this time, but experience makes that difficult to say with certainty.
“We’ve been down this road a couple different times over the past couple of seasons,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “It seems like every time we get to a certain point we’ve had some type of setback or feeling something’s not quite right.
“I’m sure he’s felt awful over the last couple of years.”
Surgery for the partial tear in the ulnar collateral ligament was ruled out for Chen, who is 32 and has already had Tommy John surgery once on the elbow. Instead, the native of Taiwan has been following a painstaking regiment to strengthen his elbow.
The results have been encouraging, with Chen showing steady progress since spring training. His return to the Marlins comes slightly ahead of the projection for May.
“This one has been [encouraging] from the beginning of spring training,” Mattingly said. “The first bullpen was impressive. He hasn’t missed a day. There’s never been anything on the report that said any kind of setback or that he didn’t feel good. So it’s been a nice surprise to get him back this quickly.”
Going into Saturday, Chen had a 4.72 ERA in 31 appearances (27 starts) for Miami. In four seasons with Baltimore, his mark was exactly one run better than that while he posted a 46-32 record and made at least 31 starts in three of those seasons.
To get production approaching that would be a major boost to Marlins pitching.
For now, they are proceeding with the assumption that Chen can finally provide some return on the investment. Mattingly said he will not take the mound with any special limits on innings or pitch count.
“He’s been built up. He’s a starter. We wouldn’t have brought him back until he was totally ready to do that,” Mattingly said. “Can’t be rehabbing here, so he’s a starter.”
Chen’s arrival pushed Caleb Smith’s scheduled start back a day to today. Dan Straily is scheduled to come off the disabled list and start Monday against the Phillies.
Jarlin Garcia will slot in on Tuesday and Jose Urena following on Wednesday.
That pushes Dillon Peters out of the rotation, and indications are the young lefty will be sent to Triple-A to continue his development when Straily is activated. Trevor Richards was already sent down, with Chen taking his place.
“It’s what we talked about we want to do to give these young guys a chance to fully develop before they’re here competing,” Mattingly said.
Smith, another rookie left-hander, is being given a chance to continue in the rotation. He is coming off his best start in which he had a career high with 10 strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter in six innings at Milwaukee.
“We’ve been happy with him,” Mattingly said. “It’s been some good, some bad. But we think he’s the guy that’s kind of proven himself at Triple-A and the guy that deserves an opportunity to see what he’s going to be as a starter.
“The last time we saw a lot of swing and miss with him. We just want him to attack the strike zone.”
New domain
Rookie Brian Anderson passed his first test Friday in his debut in right field after moving from third base to make room for Martin Prado.
The first play of the game produced a fly to shallow right that Anderson caught on the run. He later made a strong, accurate throw from the right-field corner, creating a close play on a double.
Anderson, who has played exclusively in the infield since turning pro, said for now he is using his third-base glove in the outfield.
“Just have a glove that I’m comfortable with that I already know and just trust it,” he said.
Anderson, who played some outfield in college, said the most challenging aspect of the switch, “I think it’s just getting the reads off the bat, figuring out when balls are slicing and how far they’re going to go.
“Right now I’m just trying to take it easy and just realize that it is baseball. I’ve played multiple positions before. So just relax and just be an athlete.”